Of Mockingbirds and Mocking Birds
by Melethril
Summary: 2nd Season: Jess has a talent to annoy people. One of his teachers finds out that this doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing.


_Disclaimer_: Nothing belongs to me. It's fanfiction

This one-shot simply wouldn't get out of my mind after having watched some episodes of the second season. So I wrote it and decided to post it.

The story takes place before Jess goes back to New York because of the car accident.

* * *

**Of Mockingbirds and Mocking Birds**

Mrs Anne Gallagher studied English Literature at a Community College in Connecticut for four years, followed by another year in Educational Studies. She wanted to teach English ever since she was twelve years old.

For the last five years she'd been a teacher at Stars Hollow High. Normally she enjoyed it, but today she could hardly focus on her students.

Her husband, her once beloved husband had cheated on her!

Merely thinking about it brought her close to tears.

They'd been together for six years, had a wonderful daughter and he had ruined it all!

For three months he'd been cheating on her with some woman living only few miles away. She'd found it out coincidentally when checking the phone bill. There had been a number listed she'd never seen before. She then had checked her husband's mobile phone noticing he'd been calling that number approximately five times a week. When she called the number, a woman picked up introducing herself as Nancy (the name itself was insulting making her think of a stripper). That person had the audacity to tell her that it was her own fault her husband had cheated on her.

_You have failed to satisfy his needs._

The mere words caused her to feel angry and desperate at the same time.

Yesterday evening she'd confronted him and a huge fight had broken loose (they'd almost never fought before).

In the end she had demanded a divorce and threw him out of her house. Her little daughter Lily had woken up and cried. It took her an hour to calm herself and her baby.

At 1 am she'd finally been able to sleep.

Now she was here. At Stars Hollow High.

Nobody had noticed that there was something wrong. Not her colleagues or neighbours and not even her best friend who drove her to school every morning. They didn't notice, so she wouldn't talk. It was too embarrassing, her pride and self-esteem had been bruised and she had no intention of letting anybody know.

She opened the door to enter the class that only few weeks ago had been her favourite one, but these days she dreaded the class, ever since that hoodlum had arrived at Stars Hollow.

It was not as if Jess Mariano lacked the intelligence, the few assignments he actually handed in (those he deemed to be interesting) had been more than just impressive, but his arrogance and complete ignorance concerning other people's feelings angered her every time she looked at him. He barely talked at all in class and those few times she'd forced him to speak scathing monosyllabic answers had left his mouth. He was the last person she wanted to teach, especially today.

Her students were already sitting in their seats (to her big surprise, Jess was there as well).

"Good morning," she said, forcing herself to act normal. She'd picked _To Kill a Mockingbird_ as topic for today since they'd had to prepare it for class. She started her lecture talking about Harper Lee and the main characters of the story and was satisfied to notice that her voice sounded normal.

Then she asked: "_To Kill a Mockingbird_… Is anybody able to tell me what that means?"

She always dreaded the silence that followed her questions.

_Come on, people! The answer is __in the book itself. It's not that hard!_

"Innocence," she didn't trust her own ears when hearing Jess Mariano's sneering tone, "Mockingbirds represent innocence. It's even written in the book: _It is a sin to kill a mockingbird_," he quoted. For a moment there was silence until he decided to add: "More than one mockingbird is being killed in the course of the story."

The rest of the class was spent by analyzing the book putting it in a historic context and discussing the hoodlum's words. Jess himself didn't talk a lot after answering the question but when his words were challenged by Chuck Presby, it was remarkable to see how eloquently he could defend his opinion.

After the class ended and she heard the classroom door close, she sighed a little and went to her desk.

"You are not alright," a slightly raspy voice startled her. Jess Mariano was still inside. He stood at the other side of the classroom leaning on the wall behind him. She'd always hated his talent to sneak up on people almost imperceptibly.

His words surprised her even more: Why would Jess Mariano, the most insensitive kid she'd ever taught, be the only person to notice that there was something wrong? He hadn't asked a question. It had been a statement as if concluding after hours of examination.

"That is none of your business, Jess! Go to your classes!" She spoke sharper than she usually did hoping it would startle the boy and chase him out.

Her words didn't really seem to have an effect on him. Of course, this was Jess Mariano she talked about. The rebel was probably used to harsh words when one looked at his defiant, arrogant attitude.

"Anything I can do?"

Why would he ask such a question? Why was he still here? Why of all people would he care?

"No, Jess! Go!" She felt her calm façade crumble and all she wanted was to be left alone. Of all students, he definitely was the last one she wanted to witness her embarrassment.

"Judging by what I saw this morning, Mrs Gallagher, I'd say another mockingbird was killed not too long ago." At those words she looked at him, he was still standing on the other side of the room, but she saw the understanding in his eyes.

The rebel looked like an old man for a moment, as if his personal mockingbird had been killed years ago.

At that the whole story bubbled out, she told everything, told him how angry she was, told him of her insecurities concerning Nancy's words (maybe it was her fault) and told him how scared she was of the ever-active Stars Hollow grapevine.

She broke into tears only a moment after that, buried her face in her hands. When she looked up again, she flinched since Jess had come silently across the room and was now kneeling before her. He didn't touch her.

She briefly wondered if he ever touched anybody at all (by that she didn't mean the connection of fists that happened every once in a while).

His brown eyes pierced her giving her the feeling of being x-rayed.

"He's an idiot," was all he said. Then he stood up walking towards the door. Before he left, he said seriously: "He doesn't deserve your tears. If he's idiotic enough to prefer physical pleasure over a stimulated, smart discussion, he doesn't deserve a person as intelligent as you and if he's blind enough not to see you as an attractive woman, you shouldn't think twice about him. He's not worth it."

At that he left closing the door silently behind him.

She'd never seen him talk so much; she most definitely hadn't expected him to say the things he said. There was no consolation, no compassion… It had been a simple statement of facts.

She couldn't help but feel better.

* * *

All week she'd expected rumours to start initiated by Stars Hollow's hoodlum, but he kept quiet. He didn't black-mail her and never approached her after their talk at the end of Tuesday's lesson. Finally she came to the conclusion, he wouldn't say anything.

Sunday evening, six days after her separation, the news finally spread. She heard Miss Patty talk about it and though giving her condolences, as soon as she turned her back, she knew Miss Patty would keep on spreading rumours about the fate of her marriage. She cherished Miss Patty, she truly did, but the woman couldn't keep a secret even if someone ordered her to.

She hurriedly went home and hoped that this would be over soon. However, she realized that the town would talk about this for months. She hid in her house and played with her daughter.

Poor Lily! She didn't understand why her Daddy was gone. She was five years old and thankfully a little young to be mocked by her peers about an unfaithful Daddy.

The next day, former Mrs Gallagher called in sick. The whole situation stressed her more than she wanted to admit.

It was early afternoon when she realized she had to buy some groceries. To keep up her façade of being sick and to conceal her looks, she put a scarf around her neck and hair hoping nobody would recognize her.

She was almost at Talyor's shop when she heard behind her: "Anne!"

Miss Patty crossed the street. It was rather impressive how fast a rather corpulent woman like her was able to walk.

"Have you heard?"

Hadn't she been called by her name, she'd have thought this would concern her marriage.

"No, Miss Patty! What is it?"

"I mean, you teach handsome Jess, don't you?" The woman said smiling. Anne was so taken aback by the words she could only nod.

"Jess exchanged approximately five bottles of body lotion with glue. He must have done it overnight. No idea, how he did it and of course nobody saw him do it, but who else could it be?"

Surprised Mrs Gallagher looked at Miss Patty: "Was anybody hurt?" She wondered why Jess would do such a stupid thing. Superglue could be dangerous.

"Oh, it wasn't that potent! It was that white, creamy glue that comes off by using water and a sponge. And it was only five bottles which he by the way must have put on the shelves himself, so apart from Taylor running from house to house telling they had to be careful when using the lotion, nothing happened. It was quite funny seeing him so flustered. Kirk's skin is still white as far as I know, though. He was the one who "found out" about the prank this morning."

All over town, Jess' (who else's?) prank was discussed, some laughed and were amused by it, some were angry demanding the boy to leave town before he burned it to the ground.

Nobody spoke of the end of the Gallagher's marriage.

The next day, she had classes again and was in a lot better mood than the entire last week. She entered the classroom and saw them all (including Jess) sitting at their desks. They talked about _Macbeth_ today and she very well noticed he didn't speak a word, didn't even seem to pay attention to class.

It angered her a little, but decided to let it drop. Yet, she asked Jess to remain after class.

As soon as the door closed behind her other students, she said: "Thank you."

Jess only raised his eyebrows mockingly: "What for?"

"You know, Jess. I am no idiot and I am quite certain that you aren't either."

"Quite certain?" His monosyllabic ways irked her.

Though not really, not after what he did. She knew he'd never admit it, but she was sure that he didn't want her to be mingled with Stars Hollow's grapevine. Something he couldn't get out of ever since entering their strange little community.

He smirked a little and turned around to leave.

"Taylor wants to ban you from Stars Hollow, you know." She said the moment he was about to open the door.

"'_It fits when such a villain is a guest. I'll not endure him.'_ Funnily Tybalt and Taylor share not only a similar name. Nevertheless, since things are the way they are; '_He shall be endured.' _Taylor doesn't have much of a choice."

"That's _Romeo and Juliet_," she simply said indicating that they had been talking about _Macbeth_ today.

"It's Shakespeare," he shrugged and left the classroom.

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I hope you liked it!

Please, read and review!

It's my first Gilmore Girls fanfiction ever (probably my only one), so please be gentle.


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